Don’t “Rune” the Ending…!

A bunch of Nordic themed, super evolved madness.

Which, incidentally, is a whole lot like this week thus far.

First off, some undeniably positive stuff. I went with the Nordic theme because I liked the cover to the most recent Thor, by Marvel Comics, and because Nine Twilights, a web comic that I had actually seen a lot of the development for, has gotten in stride on it’s official launch. The art is well executed, the plot (as explained to me) is interesting and complex, and I generally think it’s worth checking out. That’s why there’s a link there, True Believers. It’s definitely nice to see the project in full stride, because the creative team has been working hard, and putting a lot of energy into it.

Also…it felt pretty important to thematically get away from many of the high falootin’ legal battles that I’ve been involved in, which of course give the protagonist her Mjolnir like “Hebrew Hammer.” For the time being, my lawyer friends and I are waiting for the dust to settle on Vergara v. California, and see if it will even be heard by the California Supreme Court. Similarly, the Friedrichs case can only wait out being reheard by a full U.S. Supreme Court…meaning that there really isn’t a giant “cause” for me. I’m good with that.

It also means that our hero has no reason to haul around her big ol’ Hebrew Hammer, chock full of legal and political powers. In this image, she has a big ol’ axe instead, for cutting through paperwork at an alarming rate, which is pretty necessary during a grading period.

Oh…and I have. Seriously, despite the impressive stack of seemingly disorganized papers on my desk, I am DAYS ahead of schedule with respect to the grading window. DAYS. Clearly, the Paperwork Axe is a thing that needs to be kept around. It might not be the Hebrew Hammer, but it has much more day to day use.

I wanted to do an image that came more firmly back to the Science Fantasy, or straight up Fantasy roots of the Edu-Mountain setting. Hence that huge, intimidating horned Bad @$& looking over things. That Forest Trickster is clearly the master of all challenges in the final Spring Season, the last obstacle to be overcome. He smug look suggests that there is something that our cast may have overlooked, some Devil in the Details yet to be revealed. I certainly feel that way, since it is my first year teaching high school, and I have never closed a school year at a high school before.

Also, Pony is back! I really like Pony, with the tuning fork tiara and all. Zebra Pony sort of fell into the Edu-Mountain setting, even more so than “I Told You So” Pony, but sometimes, you just need Pony to be around. Heck, there’s even an appearance of Horsey brewing. Still, it was nice to get back to drawing Pony, the most commonly appearing of all of the ponies in Adequacy. And there are a whole lot of ponies in the Fortress of Togetherness, let me tell you.

The Magic: The Gathering Tournament (MODOK Madness) finished, and Medalists were announced. Prizes were awarded, and now we are in the two week sign up for a “Two Headed Giant” format Tourney, which is not unlike a Tennis “doubles” match.

Elections for the new Leadership positions, and school offices (like class president and so forth) are in full swing, and I have had all kinds of recommendation letters to write. Students, of course, don’t plan ahead all that much, so many of those letters need to be produced somewhat “on the fly.” Thankfully, only students that I felt that I could really and truly endorse have asked me for letters, so that has been pretty easy to churn out. Also, without the awkwardness of, “Um…no, I don’t think I can write you a letter.” Always good to avoid that speech, if you can.

The title of the post deals with the artistic content, to a degree (get it, rune/ruin). It also deals with the fact that this week I’ll be putting the text of “Catcher in the Rye” safely in the can, finishing the read at least, if not the final essay by students. Finally (a triple meaning!) it does deal with my paranoia that there is some arcane high school procedure, or school process, that I’m unfamiliar with and will cause great stress and/or trial. Sigh.

That’s the start of the week. Positive, but with an ominous feeling of some kind of trickster beast lord looking over things, trying to trip you up with super evolved hassles of some kind. After all, that’s how things go at the Edu-Mountain.